Thread: Small Lathe Lifting

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

In general the slinging method shown by Dmac 666 Dave is not good rigging practice. Leaving aside the lifting from the headstock for the moment, it is much safer to use 2 seperate slings, in Dmacs situation, one from the headstock to the lifting hook and one from the tailstock end of the bed to the hook. This will prevent the sling sliding through the hook as the weight is being taken. This is quite possible especially in the case where you have a serious industrial machine like the DSG pictured earlier where the headstock almost takes up half the bed length, and the headstock end is significantly heavier than the tailstock end of the lathe. It is often a good idea to remove the tailstock altogether for the lift, to save it coming loose and falling off, and rigging through the webs in the lathe bed, or alternatively if the lathe has holes cast into the bed to take round bars to lift the lathe, use these. DSGs have these lifting points cast into the bed as does the lathe pictured in Manx's post. If you just take the weight you will see if one end is heavier than the other, you can to an extent balance the load by moving the carriage to the lighter end to level the lathe, while it is just a few mm clear of the floor.
while some may lift from the spindle with impunity, I would advise against it. Not only might the bearings be damaged, possibly only a small chance, but perhaps more likely is the chance of headstock mis-alignment if the lathe is lifted from the spindle. As others have said, the lathe manual will generally show how it should be slung, and if you have to choke hitch around the bed, then you must pack the slings out from any power feed rods, control rods and the lead-screw to prevent them being bent as has been mentioned earlier.

Cheers
Sound advice - wish it was a DSGI was putting in - havent seen one in 40 year
Rumble

Bought the same lathe as you Rumble, I made up a device out of 5mm RHS, welded two bit of rod underneath and drilled a hole through the center, bolted that close up near the headstock, the two bit of rod welded on either end stops the sling from slipping off when lifting with a engine crane, even with the tail stock moved to the far end, the headstock is out of balance when lifting, ended up using a com-a-long to balance out the sagging weight of the headstock, all went well.

DD